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Fostering Engagement in Business Courses:�Strategies for the Classroom and Online

Antonio Porto

PhD Candidate

Management Science

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AGENDA

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MOTIVATION

VIDEO CASE STUDIES

CANVAS DISCUSSIONS

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MOTIVATION

“Liked that at the end of class we would go through an example as a group and talk about it”

Student Feedback

“Instructor provided in-class handouts, real world examples, and practice problems to relate course material to reality.”

“Interesting real life examples helped explain complex topics”

“The real world examples of companies that applied to the each weeks course content.”

“engaged discussions with classmates”

“The videos that tied between the lectures and actual businesses.”

“I really liked the case studies, and I've used some of the management strategies at work like agile for projects.”

“The most effective aspects were the quizzes combined with discussion. It gave us a broad range to show our learnings”

“I enjoyed the diverse assignments as well, ranging from quizzes to discussions; it truly helped us reflect on our learning”

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VIDEO CASE STUDIES

“A case study is a snapshot of an organization or an industry wrestling with a dilemma, written to serve a set of pedagogical objectives.”

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Access Yale’s Article on Case Study Basics

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  • Written case studies present challenges to instructor and students
  • “Generation Z Prefers Learning From YouTube, Not Books“

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VIDEO CASE STUDIES

Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Small Business Formation experience:

  • Include 2-3 short (< 5min) videos throughout the lecture with entrepreneurs, businesspeople, professors, talking about key concepts, allowing for students to ask questions or share insights
  • End (almost) every class with a ~10min video about a company, entrepreneur, industry in a context that relates to the lecture’s topic
  • Followed by 5-10min of small group discussions with 2-3 relevant questions
  • Concluding with class discussion of the questions and other insight

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VIDEO CASE STUDIES

Implementation challenges and suggestions:

  • Focus on videos from reputable sources, that are relatively recent, and from well known companies
  • Relevant YouTube channels (WSJ, CNBC, TED talks, etc)
  • Provide links to videos on lecture slides after class
  • Discussion questions should be open ended, and related to lecture topics
  • Handouts can be used to assign participation/attendance points

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CANVAS DISCUSSIONS

“Canvas Discussions provide a built in system for class conversations. Instructors and students can create and participate in as many discussion topics as needed. Discussions support interactive communication for individuals, full classes, and groups.”

Access Instructure’s “What are Discussions?”

  • For online courses, discussion assignments may be the only moment of interaction between students
  • Students can learn from each other, and raise points that would otherwise be ignored

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CANVAS DISCUSSIONS

Business Policy and Strategic Management (non-UWM class) experience:

  • 3 discussion post assignments during the semester
  • For each discussion, students were instructed to pick a company and apply a specific concept
    • ~3 guiding questions provided for each assignment
    • Students had to post their analysis on Canvas, and comment on at least another student’s analysis

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CANVAS DISCUSSIONS

Implementation challenges and suggestions:

  • Free choice of companies, but require that they have at least some public information available (e.g., “About Us” website)
  • More rewarding/interesting for students (e.g., “I enjoyed the freedom we had in discussions by choosing our own companies to talk about.”)
  • Ensure students can only see other posts after submitting their own, and cannot make edits (Canvas options)

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THANKS!

Questions?

Antonio Porto - janschp2@uwm.edu

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